Book Review by Richard L. Weaver II, Ph.D.
From the English Department, Dartmouth University, website :
“Donald Pease, professor of English, Avalon Foundation Chair of the
Humanities, Chair of the Dartmouth Liberal Studies Program and winner of
the 1981 Distinguished Teaching Award at Dartmouth, is an authority on
nineteenth and twentieth-century American literature and literary
theory. In the summer of 1986 he brought the School of Criticism and
Theory to Dartmouth. In 1996 he founded the Dartmouth Institute in
American Studies and in 1997 he has also served as Academic Director of
the Alumni College program.”
Despite
his outstanding credentials, this is not an academic book. It is a
readable, factual, well-documented, thorough, and highly interesting
book.
These are the first two paragraphs of his biography, published at the website, “Dr. Suess National Memorial :
“Theodor Seuss Geisel, better known to the world as the beloved Dr.
Seuss, was born in 1904 on Howard Street in Springfield, Massachusetts.
Ted's father, Theodor Robert, and grandfather were brewmasters in the
city. His mother, Henrietta Seuss Geisel, often soothed her children to
sleep by "chanting" rhymes remembered from her youth. Ted credited his
mother with both his ability and desire to create the rhymes for which
he became so well known.
Although
the Geisels enjoyed great financial success for many years, the onset
of World War I and Prohibition presented both financial and social
challenges for the German immigrants. Nonetheless, the family persevered
and again prospered, providing Ted and his sister, Marnie, with happy
childhoods.”
The
only review of the book posted on Amazon.com when I wrote my review, is
this 5-star one by A. Nazaryan, who nicely sums up all that I have to
say about the book: “Highly readable, deeply informative, this is a
lively take on the life of our most famous children's author. Much less
academic - or heavy - than previous works on Seuss, it covers both his
life and work while unraveling aspects of his life readers probably
don't know much about: his relationship with his mother (who gave him
the name Seuss), his rowdy days at Dartmouth, his work for the New
Yorker, his first wife's suicide and, of course, how he came up with
some of the most memorable characters in all of literature.”
The book is fantastic, the additional illustrations are a terrific addition, and I highly recommend this book.
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